Free trade zone in Belize's Corozal district becomes hub for contraband trade.
| Autor | Reynolds, Louisa |
The high street lined with casinos and duty-free shops selling perfume, cigarettes, liquor, and designer clothing embodies the ideal image of the Corozal Free Trade Zone--on the Belize-Mexico border--that the Belizean authorities are eager to promote.
Created in 1994, the Corozal Free Trade Zone was supposed to create jobs and stimulate national and foreign investment in the Corozal district, after the closure of the Liberated Sugar Factory in 1985 caused widespread unemployment in northern Belize and forced thousands of young Belizeans to migrate to southern Mexico and the US (NotiCen, July 29, 2010).
Around 500 containers from China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Canada, Germany, and Paraguay are unloaded every year in this enclave, says David Akierman, president of the Corozal Free Trade Zone.
However, only a few streets away from the bright lights of the duty-free shops and casinos lies a very different side of the Corozal Free Trade Zone, one where the lack of adequate customs regulations and border surveillance has allowed smuggling to flourish unchecked.
The Corozal Free Trade Zone can only be accessed via Mexico. Visitors are not asked to show their passport and a 10 peso (US$0.77) fee is all that is requested to enter the area. Shopkeepers offer boxes containing 50 packs of cigarettes-mostly counterfeit brands such as Modern, Maypole, Capital, and Marshal--for US$160 and are more than willing to haggle.
Tobacco company Philip Morris International says most of these cigarettes enter Belize via the Paraguay-Uruguay-Panama route and leave Belize by land over the border with Guatemala or Mexico, in vans loaded with merchandise.
A line of parked vans with no number plates can be seen behind the stores. The seats have been ripped off and a customs official explains that they have been altered to carry contraband merchandise such as cigarettes, liquor, clothes, toys, and electronic appliances. The vans are loaded at the back of the stores and exit the country through the multiple "blind spots" along the border.
An Insight Crime report said, "There are plenty of indications that Belize plays a particularly significant role in the regional contraband cigarette trade. ... Belize's prominent role in contraband trade is likely enhanced by its porous borders, lack of security measures, and rugged geography, all factors which have contributed to a rise in organized crime activity in recent years."
The contraband trade route
These vehicles...
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